


Patient Care

by psychedelicatus



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: (very) brief mention of jaedo, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of surgery, Sickfic, this is nothing but gratuitous fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26696191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychedelicatus/pseuds/psychedelicatus
Summary: Taeyong gets admitted to the hospital for appendicitis, and Johnny, his doting boyfriend, takes care of him.That's it. That's the fic.
Relationships: Lee Taeyong/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 10
Kudos: 128





	Patient Care

Johnny clutches his coat as he runs through the sliding doors of the hospital entrance, not bothering to put it on after leaving the car despite the mid-winter cold biting through his turtleneck sweater. He slows down into a brisk walk when a nurse gives him the side-eye for running in the hallways, feeling slightly chastised. He reaches the ER and doesn’t even bother asking the staff, immediately heading towards the only subsection in the critical care area that has its curtains drawn.

He pulls the curtain back to see Taeyong on a gurney, complexion paler than usual. The latter just blinks at him in surprise, before smiling sheepishly. “Uh... Hi.”

Johnny lets out a relieved sigh, knees feeling weak. He takes a couple of shaky steps towards Taeyong. “Doyoung told me you collapsed at work? And I just assumed the worst..” He takes Taeyong’s hand and grips tight, more to reassure himself than anyone else. 

Taeyong whips his head to glare lightly at Doyoung, whom Johnny belatedly realizes has been sitting in the chair next to the gurney the entire time, watching the exchange amusedly. “I thought I told you not to make it sound dramatic.”

The man in question lifts his hands defensively. “Hey, he was gonna react dramatically no matter what I said, so..” He says, shrugging. Johnny couldn’t even deny it.

Doyoung stands up, rounding the bed to give Johnny a friendly pat on the back. “I’ll leave him in your capable hands, buddy. I’ve gotta get back to the school and deal with the commotion this one caused.” He says in a long-suffering tone, gesturing at Taeyong. 

The latter winces. “Tell the kids I’m sorry for scaring them, and that I’ll be back soon enough.” To that, Doyoung just scoffs and responds “Oh no, you’re not getting anywhere NEAR work until you get yourself sorted out. Johnny, strap him to the bed if you need to.” 

Johnny couldn’t resist. “Well I would, but.. He’d enjoy that a little too much, and that definitely won’t help him get better.” Taeyong sputtered. Doyoung rolls his eyes to the heavens, turning to head towards the exit. “I did not need to hear that!” He yells over his shoulder before disappearing through the ER entrance.

\--

After a quick check-up by a doctor, they were sent to the radiology department. ‘It’s necessary to get a clear diagnosis.’, the doctor had said, but Taeyong couldn’t help but inwardly curse at him, the ultrasound technician, and whatever higher power exists (for good measure) when an ultrasound wand was being poked onto his right pelvic region - where the pain was the worst. It had him tearing up and writhing on the gurney, black spots dancing in his vision. Only after the pressure on his pelvis was lifted did he realize that he had been holding a death grip on Johnny’s hand the entire time, though the latter didn’t seem to mind one bit, calmly reaching up to wipe the tears off his face.

They got the diagnosis within 30 minutes. “So you mean to tell me,” Johnny pinches the bridge of his nose. “That you’ve been having symptoms of appendicitis for days.. Almost a week, even. And you didn’t think to let me know?” 

Taeyong chews on his lip nervously. “To be fair, it wasn’t this bad before today. I genuinely thought I just pulled a muscle in my hip or something!” 

Johnny sighs, exasperated. “Taeyong.”

Taeyong looks down guiltily at their joined hands on the hospital bed. “I’m really sorry.. I just didn’t want to worry you.” Taeyong has always had an affinity for taking care of others - it’s why he chose to be a preschool teacher, after all. The irony of it is that he’s terrible at taking care of himself. Johnny had thereby made it his personal mission to take care of Taeyong, and it’s been that way for the 1 year (closing in on 2 years) that they’ve been dating. But even the deepening of their relationship doesn’t help Taeyong feel like any less of a burden.

“Well, you did end up almost giving me a heart attack earlier today anyways.” Johnny scolds, scooting his chair closer to the side of Taeyong’s bed. He presses soft kisses to the knuckles of Taeyong’s hand. “The doctor said it’s better to have the surgery tonight, before it can get any worse. Is that okay with you?” 

“Yeah, let’s get this over with,” Taeyong sighs. There’s really no good reason to postpone it, but Taeyong can’t help but feel dread over the notion of being cut open. 

Johnny’s reassuring smile helps ground him. “Okay, I’ll let the doctor know.” He stands, pressing a quick kiss on Taeyong’s blonde locks before walking out to call a nurse.

\--

The procedure, when it came down to it, was fairly quick. To be fair, Taeyong was asleep for most of it - all he remembers was the nurse walking him through the bag of diluted sedatives being connected to the IV drip in his left forearm, before the operating room’s lights began to blur above him. He can’t recall if he succeeded in counting backwards from 10 like the nurse had asked him to just before he slipped under.

He remembers waking up briefly as he was being transferred to his personal hospital room - Johnny having spared no expenses to make sure he was comfortable - only capable of deliriously fixating at how pretty Johnny’s lips look when he speaks. He might have even said it out loud, considering how amused Johnny looked right before he succumbed to unconsciousness once more.

The second time he came to, it was to voices conversing in hushed tones, and intense pain in his abdomen. He groaned at the immense discomfort, hearing someone to his right chuckle in response. He opens his eyes to Johnny’s smile, his face barely a foot away from Taeyong’s own. He’d changed out of his sweater, Taeyong noted - opting for a fitting, short-sleeved T-shirt that does nothing to hide his toned arms.

“How are you feeling?” Johnny asks, hand reaching up to affectionately run his fingers through Taeyong’s bed-hair. Taeyong just groans again in response, simply closing his eyes and indulging Johnny’s touch, not trusting his speech to work just yet.

Johnny snorted. “The sedatives finally wore off, huh? Let’s get the nurse in here.” He reaches for the call button right above Taeyong’s head and presses it once. 

“Wait, so they just.. Cut out your whole appendix? Just like that?” Taeyong realizes for the first time since he woke up that Mark is also in the room, standing on the other side of the bed from Johnny, shoulders slightly hunched in discomfort as he considers the notion of invasive surgery.

“Yes, Mark, that generally is what you do with an infected appendix,” Johnny says, drily. “The doctor said we’re lucky it didn’t rupture, or there’d be a whole lot more damage.” Mark cringes, arms hugging his own abdomen as if he could empathetically imagine the pain.

It just occurred to Taeyong’s sleep-addled mind that he had missed Mark, having not seen the junior for more than two weeks. “Wh’t’re you doin’ ‘ere?” That wasn’t bad for a first attempt at post-surgery speech, Taeyong deduced. Mark laughs at the attempt anyway. 

“I had a break from work for the first time in a while, so I figured I’d visit.” Mark says, shrugging. “The rest are worried too, but they’re kinda tied up at the moment.”

“So they sent Mark to make sure you hadn’t keeled over.” Johnny finishes. Taeyong had almost felt touched. Almost. 

The nurse steps in right then, checking his vitals before injecting what Taeyong assumes are painkillers into his IV line, updating his chart then stepping out. He sighs in relief when he feels the medication taking effect barely 2 minutes after, the pain slowly becoming muted. 

“Did you find everything ok?” Johnny asks Mark. The latter picks up the packed carry-on bag he had presumably put on the floor next to the bed when he came in, handing it to Johnny. “Yeah. Toothbrushes, Shampoo, Clothes.. Found a couple of Taeyong-hyung’s hoodies and pants in your closet too, so I just shoved them in there.” He pulls out what looks like Johnny’s apartment key out of his back pocket and hands it over as well.

Taeyong registers the conversation slowly given his opioid-addled brain. “Wait, toothbrushes? Plural?” Johnny raises an eyebrow. “Uh, yeah? I’m staying over with you.” He says as if it were obvious. Taeyong just looks at him as if he’d grown a second head. “What about work??”

“Relax, I took paid time off. I’m not going anywhere until you’re better.” Johnny insisted. Taeyong suspects that he purposely didn’t specify whether ‘until you’re better’ meant until he’s discharged from the hospital, or until his surgical wound heals entirely. “Johnny, that could take anywhere between 1-4 weeks.” He chastises.

Johnny just shrugs coyly. “Well then, good thing I’ve got lots of leave days saved up.” Taeyong sighs, wincing when the act jostled his healing wound. 

Mark just awkwardly looks between the two of them as they quarrel, lips pressed together in an uncomfortable line. “Oookay, time for me to head out. Feel better, hyung!” He waves at Taeyong as he quickly walks out of the room, Johnny shouting a quick ‘Thanks again, bro.’ after him before the door closes behind him.

Johnny carefully sits on the bed next to Taeyong. “Listen. You’re gonna go stir-crazy in here with nothing to do for upwards of a week.” He pinches Taeyong’s chin softly, a fond habit. “You’ll need me for your sanity.” He reasons.

Taeyong considers him for a long moment, then deflates. “Fine.. Thanks.” He says softly, feeling unusually vulnerable. 

Johnny’s smile is teasing. “Are you kidding? This is probably the only instance in the 18 months that we’ve dated where I can fully pamper you, and you won’t be able to do anything about it but take it lying down,” He pauses. “Literally.” Taeyong rolls his eyes. 

\--

It doesn’t take long for Taeyong to take full advantage of Johnny’s pampering. So far, he’s received a foot massage and a neck massage - letting out several inappropriate noises as Johnny works out that knot in the base of his skull from the uncomfortable hospital pillows. He’d also relied on him to support most of his weight as he struggles to walk to and from the bathroom (his bladder is, after all, working just fine). 

The taller man was concerned at first with him moving around too much, until the doctor reassured him that Taeyong in fact needed to move as much as he can as the wound heals, to reduce the possibility of blood clotting. 

Taeyong runs a fever overnight. He helplessly alternates between sleep and drowsy consciousness, noting through his delirium how Johnny is always awake and next to him whenever he opens his eyes, ready to change his (now warm) cold compress, or to help him sit up to drink - holding the glass of water for him.

When he woke in the morning, his fever had broken, and he was hungry. 15 hours after his surgery, he had regained his appetite, stomach rumbling uncomfortably every 5-10 minutes. Of course, Johnny had to be the first to hear about it. 

“Babe, I know you’re hungry. But the doctor says you’re not allowed to eat until you-” 

“Until I fart, I know!” Taeyong huffs, crossing his arm petulantly. It had sounded ridiculous when the doctor had mentioned it the first time (Johnny had doubled over in laughter), but they were informed it was necessary to tell whether or not there are complications in his digestive tract after anesthesia. 

Johnny, being the man-child that he is, can’t help but giggle again. “Hey, look on the bright side. Once you, uh.. break wind, you’ll be able to eat all the soft foods that you can dream of. No solid foods, though.” Taeyong groans at that, flopping his head back onto his pillow. He stares at the ceiling in defiance, willing his stomach to shut up. It growls again not 2 minutes later.

Johnny laughs, getting up from the couch situated next to the large windows, morning light filtering through the open blinds. “Maybe sitting up a bit can help.” He walks over and scrutinizes the control panel on the side of Taeyong’s hospital bed, trying to figure how to adjust the recline when Taeyong’s slightly colder hand comes up to cup his cheek. His thumb brushes over eye bags that looked puffier than they were just last night.

“You didn’t sleep at all, did you?” Taeyong asks, doe eyes wide and concerned. Johnny shrugs. “I took some naps here and there.” 

Taeyong wasn’t happy with that answer, either. “Stupid appendix. Ruining everyone’s week.” He mutters, pouting.

Johnny snorts. “Yeah, good riddance.” Unable to help it, he lands a quick peck on Taeyong’s pout. “I’m fine. Now put your arm around me.”

Johnny helps him sit up with a firm hand on his lower back, adjusting the pillows behind him. Taeyong hisses as he adjusts himself, not without a bit (correction, a lot) of pain as his abdomen shifts with the new position. 

A couple of knocks on the door is all the warning they get before it flies open, Jaehyun stepping in. He pauses, taking stock of their close proximity with a raised eyebrow. “Whoa, am I interrupting fun-time?” Johnny straightens up after he’s done adjusting Taeyong’s blanket, placing his hands on his hips.

“He’s incapacitated, jackass.” He bites back. For a second, Jaehyun looked like he had an unholy retort on the tip of his tongue, but thought better of it and snapped his mouth shut. He lifts the large bag he was carrying in his right hand. “Your kids left you some get-well-soon gifts. Thought I’d bring them over, out of the kindness of my heart.” Jaehyun smiled a tad too wide, dimples showing. 

Taeyong sent him a dry look. “Doyoung told you to visit didn’t he?” 

Jaehyun sighed, deflating. “Only because he’s too busy to do it himself. He told me to make sure you were still alive or he’d throw out my vinyls. Even though he could’ve just called..” He sniffed morosely. They’re definitely past the honeymoon phase of their relationship.

He sets the large bag down the bedside table. “So, they got you some flowers - hope they’re not crushed, a couple of get well soon cards, some pastries..” Taeyong’s eyes light up immediately. “Pastries?”

“Uhhh..” Jaehyun glances at Johnny, the latter sending him a wide-eyed, frantic look, making slicing gestures at his own neck in a very clear, non-verbal shout of ‘DON’T’. “Uhh, pastries? I didn’t say that. You probably misheard me.” He says, trying (and failing) to very subtly pull out a box of pastries - from Taeyong’s favorite café, no less - out of the bag of gifts to hide behind his back.

The moment Taeyong catches sight of the box, he practically wails. “Oh my god, this is torture! Which one of the parents sent those pastries? Is it Jiyoung’s mom? Is this her revenge after catching her husband trying to flirt with me for the 5th time at the last parent-teacher meeting??” He smothers his own face with the extra pillow and screams into it.

“Babe, you can have as many pastries as you want in a week, okay? Bear with me.” Johnny tries to placate him. Jaehyun, off to the side, just mutters, “Huh. So that’s what he was doing? I just thought the man had twitchy eyelids..”

A nurse barges into the room to chastise them for the commotion, prompting Jaehyun to leave with all the edible gifts - at Johnny’s insistence. Taeyong sulks for another hour in silence. 

\--

At the 20th hour point after surgery, Taeyong had successfully ‘let one rip’, as Johnny had put it (while breathless with laughter). He couldn’t have been happier when the doctor finally gave him the OK to have his first meal post-surgery. Granted, if he weren’t starving, he’d criticize the severe lack of taste in hospital food, but he had practically inhaled the Dakjuk as if it were ambrosia.

Hunger sated, he laid in his bed in a post-dinner haze, currently trying to plan the itinerary for the class trip the school had planned for next month. Johnny snatched the phone right out of his hand. “Didn’t Doyoung tell you not to work until you’re better?” 

Taeyong whines, half-heartedly reaching for his phone. “I was just thinking of activities the kids could do on the trip, it’s barely work-” 

“Nooope,” Johnny places his phone on the side table, way out of reach. “You get to do nothing but relax. Let’s put on a movie, I think they have lord of the rings on pay-per-view.” He grabs the remote and switches on the TV. 

Taeyong relents, sighing. He pats the empty space on the mattress next to him. “Then cuddle with me.” He demands, not unlike a child. 

Johnny hesitates. “But what if I accidentally elbow you or something?” Taeyong just rolls his eyes. 

“It’ll take much more than your clumsy elbows to do me in, John Suh. Even if you’re 68 kilograms of pure muscle.” He makes a show of checking Johnny out, eyeing him from head to toe. Johnny laughs before going along with it, flexing his arms for show 

“Fine. Scoot, old man.” Taeyong gingerly moves towards the right side of the surprisingly spacious bed, wincing a couple of times. Johnny, privileged with a tall stature, curls around Taeyong’s body with his own. They end up with their feet tangled together, Taeyong’s head cushioned on his arm. They put on lord of the rings as promised, Taeyong practically squealing when Cate Blanchett made her first 3-second appearance.

Johnny checks Taeyong’s temperature with a hand on the latter’s forehead. “You’re really taking this whole caretaker thing seriously.” Taeyong snorts. Johnny frowns in lieu of a response. “You’re feverish.”

Taeyong nods. “The doctor did say it was pretty normal to get fevers overnight. Quit worrying.” He pinches Johnny’s side.

“When did he say that?” Johnny asked, bewildered at not remembering any such conversation, when he literally takes notes - on his phone’s notes app - of every piece of advice the doctor gives them. Taeyong smiles knowingly. “He came in while you were asleep on the couch. You seemed pretty tired.” 

Johnny jokingly pouts. “You should’ve woken me up.” Taeyong lightly slaps Johnny’s (finely sculpted) abs in reprimand.

“Yah, I’m a patient, not a newborn baby.” He turns his head away from the tv screen to face Johnny, their noses brushing. “You’ve done more for me than I could ever repay you for.” He says, eyes soft.

Johnny narrows his eyes. “If you think I’m doing any of this because I expect to get something back, then you’ve got another thing comi-” He’s cut off by a pair of lips pressing onto his own. Distantly, Johnny knows he should be irked that Taeyong’s foolproof method of shutting him up with a kiss had worked again, but he’s too distracted by the pleasant heat of Taeyong’s mouth (likely because of the fever) against his. 

They reluctantly separate what feels like an eternity later, turning their attention to the movie. Taeyong was lightly snoring into his neck by the time Frodo arrived in Rivendell.

\--

On the fourth day post-procedure, the doctor had given Taeyong the all-clear to be discharged, sending him home with 2 paper bags of painkillers and essential medication as well as a stern reminder to rest, and stay on ‘soft foods’ until next week. A reminder that Johnny knows Taeyong would purposely ‘forget about’ within a couple of days. 

Johnny keeps up his caretaking routine even then, staying over at Taeyong’s apartment and watching the latter closely as he slowly waddles everywhere like a newborn penguin - Taeyong only allowing him to help in getting out of bed, or to get up or sit back down on the couch. (“You know, I could just bring anything you need to the bed.” “Don’t! the doctor said I should walk around on my own as much as I can.”)

True to his character, Taeyong breaks his soft-food diet not two days later, sneakily texting Mark to bring him snacks (the latter agreed, of course, him being a big ol’ pushover for Taeyong). Johnny only caught him when he was halfway through the strawberry shortcake. He relented (because he’s also a gigantic pushover for Taeyong), but took away the sweet potato cubes, risking Taeyong’s wrath for the sake of his wellbeing. Luckily, the silent treatment only lasted for half a day.

Spending his every waking hour in Taeyong’s presence had inspired a revelation in Johnny, one that he voiced when they were huddled together on the couch one night, his left arm around Taeyong’s shoulders. The honey lemon tea he made for them earlier had gone cold on the coffee table, ignored in favor of the new netflix original they were watching that he’d already forgotten the name of.

“Do you wanna get a place together?” he asks, voice slightly muffled with his lips buried in Taeyong’s hair. From the way Taeyong minutely froze against him, he had heard him just fine. “What?” 

“Well, the leases on both our places are almost up. I was thinking maybe we should consider.. Cohabitation?” His voice trails off, suddenly unsure. Taeyong turns his head to look at him, eyes wide and searching. “You’re not joking, are you?” He asks, bewildered.

“Nope. I mean it.” Johnny says, in the most serious tone he could muster. Taeyong just stares for a long moment, then chuckles to relieve the tense atmosphere. “What brought this up?”

“Uh.. Nothing, really, I just thought that maybe.. It’s time?” Johnny nearly stumbles over his words. “Never mind, forget I ask-”

“Sure.”

Johnny stops short, registering what Taeyong had just said. “Wait, what?”

Taeyong sighs. “Look, I know I’ve been.. Difficult.. About letting you take care of me,” He starts. Johnny mutters ‘understatement..’ under his breath, which Taeyong clearly heard if the following pinch on his thigh was any indication.

“But,” Taeyong continues. “This past week has.. Changed my mind about a lot of things. I’m sorry it took me this long for us to get to this point.” He drops his gaze, fingers twiddling with the edge of the blanket they’re both wrapped in.

“No worries,” When he looks up, He meets brown eyes as warm as sunshine. Johnny smiles on top of it all, and Taeyong’s heart feels like it might burst. “I was prepared to wait for an eternity anyways.” He shrugs.

Taeyong laughs brightly, high on life. The kiss they shared after was sweet, probably from the honey tea.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this based on personal experience, so that bit about.. passing gas.. was totally medically accurate. 
> 
> Also, Johnny and Taeyong have fish children. That is all.
> 
> follow me on [twt](https://twitter.com/psychedelicatus) for a fun time!


End file.
